International Seminar on Language Endangerment in South AsiaAnnamalai University

We are happy to inform you that the Centre of Advanced Study in Linguistics, Annamalai University (under the auspices of UGC SAP CAS - IV) in collaboration with the Centre for Tribal and Endangered Languages, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore is organizing an International seminar on ‘Language Endangerment in South Asia’ for three days during 13-15 March 2013.

We have great pleasure in inviting you to attend the international seminar and to participate in the deliberations. The international seminar would provide an excellent opportunity to researchers for presenting the theoretical issues and participating in intellectual discussions on different issue of language endangerment in South Asia.

About the Centre:

The department of Linguistics in Annamalai University was established in 1956 and was upgraded to Centre of Advanced Study in Linguistics in 1963. Since then the centre has been recording phenomenal growth, offering various courses in linguistics and carrying out high level research in India. The UGC has sanctioned grants under SAP since 1990 to till date. Under IV phase of the SAP endangered languages is considered as one of the thrust areas by our centre for research. The centre has produced more than 170 Ph.D. thesis and published 182 books. It has organized more than 100 seminars, conferences and workshops. It has made significant contributions not only in Dravidian languages but in Indian tribal languages. In our centre more than 25 doctoral research works were undertaken in Tribal Languages. Particularly, the centre has produced more than 25 Ph.D. dissertations in Indian tribal languages. The centre has also been working in the area of computational linguists since 2000 and produced many software and tools for Tamil language processing.

There are around 6800 languages spoken in the world today. There is a widespread agreement that by the end of this century, a full 90% of world’s languages will disappear entirely, replaced by more widely used (national and/or global) languages (L.Grenoble, 2006). This situation is generally referred to as language endangerment, a term used broadly for languages, which are threatened with absolute loss. A language is considered endangered when it is used by few speakers and it is used in fewer situations or domains.

There are many interesting facts about the world’s languages. Some 96% of all the world’s languages are spoken by just 4% of the population. One fourth of the total number of languages have fewer than 1000 speakers. More than half of all languages have fewer than 10000 speakers. A very large majority of the world’s population speaks just a very few languages. A small number of the so-called prestigious major languages dominate over a large number of indigenous tribal languages. Most of these tribal languages did not gain the status of medium of education, political power, administration and other domains of national life. In spite of all the disadvantages, the past indicates retention of these languages for communication, identity, heritage, cultural ethos, ritual practice, etc. But now there is a change among the younger generation of the tribes. They switch over to the regional/national languages. This change is mainly due to mass media especially television, radio, cinema and other communication systems (B. Ramakrishna Reddy, 2009, 2010). More to the point is the fact that we are witnessing rapid language shift, with a small set of major or global languages gaining in terms of numbers of speakers at the expense of a vast majority of the world’s languages. There are scholars to opine that well developed languages like French, German, etc. may disappear in 50 years or so mainly due to globalization. There is, therefore, a need to study the trends of language endangerment, to evolve the remedial measures for revitalization, to identify the methods of preservation of their languages, cultures, rituals, oral literatures, etc. and to prepare a future plan to suggest the concern authorities.

We invite original contributions or theoretical issues related to Language Endangerment in South Asia in the form of a research paper for presentation in this International seminar. Papers are invited on topic related to the main theme including the following areas:

Abstracts in English, not exceeding 500 words and typed in word format, may be sent either through email (lesaconfgmail.com) or in CD by post to the coordinator.

The abstracts will be scrutinized by an expert committee and the acceptance will be intimated to the authors by 20 January 2013. The full papers in the prescribed format may be sent on or before the date mention below. The whole proceeding will be published as a book with ISBN number and will be made available to the delegates on the conference date. Full papers not received in the specified date will not be included in the volume.

Important Dates to Remember:

Submission of abstract: 10 January 2013Intimation of acceptance: 20 January 2013Submission of full paper: 10 February 2013 Conference dates: 13-15 March 2013